got a friend ? get them to press pedal down slow and call when doing so whilst ya look at gearbox end just to make sure it's moving when pushed as it were in all the right places
although it's tight, drop out the drivers glovebox and get a torch up inside the dash to the top of the pedal whilst someone pumps it - see if you can see any untoward bending
should be inner cable only moving - anything metal moving and it's will be pedal box syndrome
mine was similar - felt soft almost like carpet was in way and got worse for grabbing gears over a couple of days - eventually 2 days later went altogether
yer - had a creak to it in the end too but they do break in different places
i hope it doesn't come to that, got visions of you sat there crapping yaself now
cable was about £35ish - always used a genuine one
pedal bob i believe is around £45 but i'l be honest was a while ago and i welded up and modified mine so i didn't need to replace it